hoo, hoo, hoo....

...do you watch, who do you look to for inspiration? Who and what is in your sites? Do you have wide angle or tunnel vision? This great horned owl was watching for his dinner, sitting stoically in the midst of a wild summer wind storm. Even on his wind tossed branch, high in a desert tree, he was quiet. And yet, his head swiveled and turned, scanning all directions, just in case there was something out there that he wouldn't want to miss. Should this be the way we look for inspiration to fire our creativity, just like the owl on the hunt, looking all directions? Who knows what is out there if we really look?

grazing sides...

On a hot dry evening, my horses stood close, grazing together at the last bits of dinner off the ground. Yin and yang, dark and light, ripples on a horizontal plane. Exploring how to best show the lines and curves and shapes and colors and forms that emerged from their positions and my perspective was an self-imposed exercise in seeing. This effort pleased me and I'm certain future "looking to see" exercises will yield even more than these undulating grazing sides. Half closing my eyes, I can almost see sandstone walls cleaved with a deep shadowed canyon partially still light by the sun. What can you see?

a sense of boldness...

Here in the desert southwest, summer is a brutal time of harsh bold light searing the landscape, punishing every living thing with it's white hot oppressive heat. And still, within this bold light, bold cacti forms present some of the boldest biggest and most beautiful blossoms. This one, measuring six or seven inches across, was only open for one day on a very tall very spiny columnar cactus. In 24 hours it withered and within 2 days, it lay as dried up refuse on the ground. But oh what a magnificent sight while it was here. These bold plants with their very bold blossoms inspire me to push for boldness in my work, in my way of seeing. Summer is hard here but still ripe with reward and even promise.

the grey...

....with those dapples, all that implied texture in his coat and in his mane flying all around. Makes me want to touch him and feel those textures.

Transitions....

....from blue to green to white to yellow, from silky smooth to spiney sharp, from blinding bright light to dark shadows. All of these transitions and this seasonal transition, the mark of the saguaro cactus blossom signaling the end of spring and the beginning of summer affect me and entice my attention. Where does one begin and the other end? Sometimes transitions are so obvious they are like a slap in the face, other times they are so muted we feel a transition more than see it. Sometimes we do both. Transitions provoke my creativity. How do transitions in a broad or narrow sense affect your creativity?

Regarding....

....the others, he watches as they go into the ring before him. Is performance or creativity stimulated by watching "the others"?

Flying feet, leading lines....

Do the leading and containing lines keep your focus lingering on the feet longer than if they were not there? Movement is challenging but cool when it's captured...

Color compels....

....color entices, just like the bee I too am mesmerized by color. Are you?

A new beginning...

....a snippet of May in Arizona

A new kind of connection.....

Ever wonder what really gets your creativity recharged? Why do you get a wild idea that you just are compelled to pursue in your creative outlet? Is it something you see or something you hear or smell or feel? Or is it something you meditate on or contemplate, filling out the barren corners of a wisp of a dream vision? Do you believe that you live as an island of your own vision and create your own reality? Or do you think that your relationships with others affects you greatly and brings you new ideas, new paths to travel and new ways of seeing?

Well, if you are like me, all of the above play a part in the creative process. I just finished a long phone call with a fellow creative, a friend over in Europe who I have emailed with for a few years. It was a first, our first voice communication, and it was such a pleasure to hear the voice and be "real" with each other that we indulged ourselves for a long time. We'd never called before what with the prices of phone service overseas. So we spent much time - probably making up for lost time - talking about our work and our passions for it, how we see and why we see and how people see differently and at different depth of vision. Sure we have written each other about these things but there is something to be said for the emotion contained in and communicated through the human voice. What a great new facet to the relationship....

And speaking of creativity, what a great creative new world we live in these days. So many innovations, so many tools to communicate -- it's an exciting time to be alive. This communication, our first call, was done over the internet, computer to computer but sounding just like an excellent traditional phone connection. Best of all, it was free. Completely and totally free for both of us. Pretty cool this VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology. The service is called Skype .

If you haven't tried it yet, give it a whirl. Simple to use, it even includes an instant messenger client and offers conference calls, for free, with other Skype users. I've just begun using the completely free service but they also have some excellent rates to use it to call people with traditional phones and to let those types call you on your Skype line (SkypeOut and SkypeIn). And it looks like they have a Voicemail service also in the works. I won't be surprised if this company ends up with a huge user base from what I see so far. I'll be checking out these other options but for right now I am just going to have some great conversations with the few friends I have who are fellow Skype users.

I've got an overflowing head full of new creative avenues to explore from this conversation tonight. I love it - I'll take creative stimulation any way I can find it. But it's cool when the latest technology has a hand in ushering it in. Like I said, it's a great time to be alive......wonder what comes next? And, hey, if you get Skype, "Skype me, baby!"

A new marriage....

For visual artists working in the digital environment, last month brought startling tech sector news of the merger of Adobe and Macromedia, a marriage of complementary visual imaging giants that have for years been rivals on several levels. While Adobe has dominated the creative imaging world of print via the indomitable industry standard image editor Photoshop and it's wide reaching file standard, pdf (or Portable Document Format), Macromedia has been seen as the force in online imaging through it's Flash technology and Macromedia web authoring software. Between the two, just about every aspect of creative imaging is covered and will now become a blended family of gigantic proportion. It will be fascinating to see how the marriage is consummated, which "children" will flourish in the new blended home, which will morph into even higher form and which will quietly disappear. Surely we with an interest in visual imagery will be in for some surprises along the way...

Read more at Adobe's site. There are also good overviews at the usual tech media outlets including: CNET.com, eweek.com

A new birth.....

Today is the first day of my new blog and so that is a birth of sorts. I hope to bring images and ideas to readers that will be meaningful and interesting. This will be a place to spark new thoughts and new ways of looking and of seeing and even of thinking. Or perhaps, at times it will be just a place to share that which is important to me as a visual artist, to offer some insight into the images I create. So, here we go, off down a new path. I hope you will join me.....